What Really Happened
by Yarrharr
Summary: From the POV of a former Manticore scientist. A little language..


What Really Happened

What Really Happened  
From the POV of a former Manticore scientist  
  
Disclaimers: This is my first fan fic, so please review!! I do not own any characters, blah blah blah. Hope you like it...  
  
  
When we started the Manticore project, we didn't know much. All the government officials told us was that we were genetically altering human embryos just to see if it could be done-- for the benefit of the medical community, I remember one of them saying. We wouldn't find out until much later what they planned to create from those embryos, who they planned to create.  
I was on the exclusive team of embryonic geneticists, one of the scientists who pinpointed target genes and then modified them. there weren't many of us; I guess the officials kept it that way, so there were fewer people to control. We were all excited about using state-of-the-art technology and doing things other scientists had only dreamed about. Sure, maybe some of us had concerns about the ethical side of what we were doing, but our boss, the Army guy they called , said that only positive research would come of it, that nobody would even know about Manticore. God, how he was wrong.  
That's why I'm writing this--for damned posterity in this mixed-up world. I want to set the record straight about Manticore. Not many people know about it except for some government and military administrators and the kids themselves, wherever they are. But for those who do know, I want to say that if I had known they were planning to train dozens of genetically-enhanced children as super-soldiers, I would have tried to stop them. That's the ironic thing, though; what could I have done to stop Manticore? They would've gotten rid of me as easily as they got rid of anyone who questioned them too much--quickly, and quietly. No evidence.  
But back to the story. I was just out of graduate school and then med school, with a degree in genetics. I thought I could conquer the world. I was doing research at a university in Michigan when the Feds contacted me. They had seen my work on stem cells in embryos, and they said they had a special project that they wanted me to work on. The contract was for two years, with a hefty salary and benefits afterward. They were pretty sketchy about the details of the project, but I didn't care. I signed on immediately. That was--let's see, 1998. Eleven years before the Pulse.  
They took me and all the other scientists to a compound in the mountains of Wyoming, where there were few towns and even fewer people. The laboratory was amazing--full of shiny gadgets and machines that make a scientist drool. they gave us a map of the human genome that had been finished five years before it was officially announced in 2000, by top-secret government researchers. We got to work right away.  
Everything we changed on the Manticore embryos was an improvement: bigger lung capacity, stronger immune system, sharper vision, quicker reflexes...  
the list was endless. We also got rid of as many genetic anomalies as we could, removing appendixes and wisdom teeth, eliminating hereditary diseases; but I know Lydecker still seethes over the fact that a few anomalies remained, hidden behind all those C's, G's, T's, and A's. That's why there were multiple X-series, to work out the bugs.  
But at the time, we didn't know that we were making the ultimate soldier. Hell, we didn't think anyone had the technology or the gall to do it. Personally, I thought that even if someone could engineer a human being, they wouldn't do it because of pure ethics and the fact that they couldn't be sure of the results. I underestimated the Manticore officials, though, because they spared no expense to move their project along.  
When me and a few of the other geneticists designing the embryos realized what they planned to do, back in early 2000, it was too late to do anything. Lydecker and his Dr.Mengeles already had the genetic plans, the surrogate mothers, and the money they needed. They quickly fired all of us, doling out large compensation fees to ensure our silence. They used other methods to shut us up, too. Dr. Ramirez, a colleague of mine at Manticore, published an expose` in late 2001. The publication was quickly denounced by the government, and Ramirez was killed a month later by an unidentified assailant. The Pulse in 09 helped quell the remaining scientists. Most of us were just struggling to survive then. I tried to forget about Manticore, hoping that it had been destroyed along with the structure of the US.  
Then, five years ago, I got a letter from a friend who'd been working at a military base in Spokane at the time of the Pulse. He said that the highest-ranking personnel had been notified of twelve soldiers that had deserted from a base in Gilette, Wyoming. The soldiers were highly dangerous and part of a sensitive government program. They were also around the age of 9 years old.  
Since then, I've been wondering more about those kids from Manticore. I'm glad they escaped, and I hope Lydecker hasn't found them yet. I wish I could find one of them and tell them that I'm sorry about what I did. What I had to do.  
But frankly, my life's dangerous enough as is. It seems Lydecker and his cronies want to get rid of more evidence--namely, the scientists who designed their not-so-perfect soldiers. Another one of my colleagues was killed in San Francisco last week, supposedly a victim of gang warfare. A black van has been parked across from my apartment for two days, and the police came to investigate the restaurant I work in recently on very dubious charges. If Lydecker's looking to kill me, I'm not going to run. What have I got to lose, besides my life? I just want to write this down to clear my conscience, and so that maybe someday, someone will understand what really happened.  



End file.
